The votes are in and AOL Sports' Hottest Athlete,
male or
female, has been decided. The first-ever winner, a drag racing upstart and daughter of NHRA icon John Force, says she was surprised to see Sharapova lose, explains why beating Danica was different and admits that under her fire suit she’s really a girlie-girl.
Teresa Long, NHRA / AP
NHRA driver Ashley Force, 24, is the overwhelming choice of AOL users in our tournament. She credits her dedicated fans for driving her to the title.
DAVE HOLLANDER: Congratulations on winning AOL Sports' first-ever Hottest Athlete Tournament. Looks like America loves a woman with helmet hair, covered in clutch dust.
ASHLEY FORCE: That apparently worked for me this time around. It’s been a lot of fun being a part of this because there’s such a variety of women in sports. Usually I'm only around a lot of men and competing only with men. So it was fun to actually compete with women because I never do on the track.
DH: During the tournament, other women were routinely displayed in evening gowns and bikinis while you were almost always shown in a seven-layer fire suit. What does this tell us about how fans like to see their athletes?
AF: Well, it has a lot do with the fact that there aren't too many pictures of me in the evening gowns or bathing suits. I'm kind of more of a shy type. In my sport that would be completely inappropriate -- to show up at the track in a bikini. In drag racing we try not to make a big deal out of the whole the aspect of being a woman. We want to show that there’s much more than just the gender of the driver. There’s the team behind the driver, the car, the sponsors. We kind of mute out the whole woman side of it. Wearing my fire suit works best for me.
DH: About the tournament: You had what looked like very tough first round draw in Anna Rawson, a professional model turned golfer. What gave you the edge there (72 percent-28 percent)?
AF: The big edge I had was how dedicated drag race fans are. They tune in every week. They have their drivers they love. They collect the die-cast. To have a drag racer in this competition, all the NHRA fans -- even those who were are fans of my competitors -- wanted to root me on because they're very proud of their sport. They want to root for their drag racer. I was fortunate that I'm in the type of sport where we have a big following of people from all over the country that are very much involved in the Internet. That’s what did it for me.
DH: The next round, the Sexy 16, pitted you against snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler (71 percent-29 percent). How much did worry about the fact that she'd posed naked before, three times?
AF: For every person it’s different. For me, I grew up in a family of girls. I have little sisters. The main base of my fans are children. So I kind of follow that path, not always the sexy route but more the youthful route. That works for me. I was kind of always the kid in the pit. I grew up around adults. So even to this day, even though I compete professionally, all the other drivers still call me “the kid.” But for different athletes it works differently... For [Gretchen Bleiler] that’s the path she took. I figured a lot more men would probably be rooting for her just because she been in those magazines that men have checked out where I'm more in the drag racing magazines.
DH: Meanwhile in the Sexy 16, Amanda Beard, despite being naked in Playboy this summer, lost in a stunning upset to Paula Creamer pitting you against Creamer in the Elite Eight. (72 percent-28 percent) Were you thinking "Another golfer? Piece of cake!"
AF: I didn't think piece of cake on any of them because I don't follow other sports that much, not even other motor sports. With how time consuming our sport is and with traveling, you don't get time to catch upon other things. So there were a lot of these women I'd seen in different magazines and ads and articles who I didn't really know too much about.
So for each person I was put up against I didn't know how it would end up. I just knew that a lot of our fans were coming up at the races so excited that they were voting. A lot of them knew the other athletes. It was fun and interesting that I would be competing against golfers and softball players and so many different athletes when I'm really ever only used to competing against motor sports people.
DH: Your Fab Four matchup against Danica Patrick had all the earmarks of a classic. But you trounced her (67 percent-33 percent). What does your drubbing of Danica say about NHRA vs. the IRL and who rules auto racing?AF: Matching up against her was probably the funnest round just because I actually knew a little bit more about her. I've been interviewed a lot where people will ask me about her. So she was someone I related to. We have similar careers. I'm sure the ups and downs I have she probably has the same in her sport. So it was fun to go against someone similar.
A big part of it is that we have a lot of female fans in drag racing. A lot of little girls, a lot of moms bring their kids. They want to root for the women. I don't know about other motor sports but I know in drag racing, the men and woman are very pumped up and motivated about their drivers. They support them in any way they can. Even if we lose and do horribly they're still the ones out there 10 o'clock at night when it’s been raining all day who say "It’s OK you didn't do well today, you'll go out and get ‘em next week." It’s hard to find people who have your back as well as they do.
DH: How surprised were you to see Maria Sharapova go down in the semis?AF: I was really surprised about that. I'm addicted to all those magazines like Star Magazine, and I always see her in there, walking down the street or with whoever she’s dating. I definitely thought, of all the gals, she was the most recognizable just because even someone like me who doesn't spend that much time watching TV or checking out other types of sports, knew a little about her. I was kind of thinking she'd go to finals and I was really surprised when she didn't. I didn't know that much about the other gal but [Sharapova] was such a recognizable person, you figure mainstream audiences will vote for someone they've seen before or recognize.
DH: That other gal was Jennie Finch. After you completed your dominating tournament run in the women’s bracket, crushing Jennie in the finals (79 percent-21 percent) was there any doubt in your mind that you would dust Tom Brady (86 percent-14 percent)? First off, going up against Jennie in the finals who is beautiful, I was like "Oh man, all my crew guys are finally gonna turn on me and vote for the other gal." It was kind of joke we all had. Truthfully, all these women should be models. I have a few nice pictures where they did my makeup and fixed me up but really these girls could quit their sport if they wanted to and go to modeling. It’s just kind of weird for me to be in that group.
Then to go up against Tom, it’s funny because my little sister, Courtney, she’s 19 and she’s big-time on the Internet and MySpace and all that stuff. Has a million friends on there. So all this time I knew a lot her friends had been voting for me, but she thinks Tom Brady is just the cutest thing ever. So I'm like "I think I might lose big chunk of votes when this final comes along." Because he’s a pretty popular person, you know? But that’s fine with me. Who would have ever thought I'd be competing with Tom Brady for something. It’s kind of amazing.
DH Do you think his becoming a father, just as we entered the overall finals, hurt him?
AF: Well, he’s definitely out there in the media a lot more now. I don't know if he likes that or not. But that’s part of it. When things are happening in your life, the public wants to know about it. I'm sure he’s got a lot going on in his life right now. I've pretty much just had the same old life I've had for the past few years. Nothing too new. I don't think it would hurt him. It’s a good thing that he’s going to carry on. Maybe his kid will be a famous football player one day. We've got to keep these kids going. The big joke with our family is my dad had all girls. He was crushed "I'm a race car driver and I had all girls!" But all three of us ended up drag racing . So, you never know.
DH: Who do think Bridget Moynihan voted for?
AF: That would be hard to say. I don't think she would know me from Adam, but maybe that’s a personal situation over there I'm not too sure about.
DH: Is there another male athlete who might have given you a better run for your money?
AF: I had really thought David Beckham. I don't know which round he went out, but I thought for sure he'd be up there in finals, just because everywhere you look these past few weeks there the all this news about his family moving to the U.S. and him competing out there so I thought for sure he'd be going far. I was kind of surprised about that.
DH: Has AOL contacted you about a trophy presentation?
AF: The last we heard they just wanted us to send some more photos to go out for the competition between me and Tom.
DH: If there is a ceremony, what will you say in your acceptance speech?
AF: I don't know. It’s a strange acceptance speech to have. It’s actually been a joke between my team but so frustrating that I won the finals in the AOL competition, but I haven't won a final in my funny car races. So now I'm like "I better get on top of this. My funny car is what my whole life is about so I better get on the ball." Truly, I don't quite know what I would say. I do know that lately I'm really trying to wear a little more makeup and do my hair a bit more instead of throwing it up in a hat like I usually do. Otherwise, AOL may take the trophy back.
DH: Your Dad, a drag race legend, is an emotional guy. After you won your first big race three years ago, he ran behind the grandstand and threw up. Did he suffer from the same kind of nerves during this tournament run?
AF: He’s calmed down a bit, thankfully for all of us. But he was so excited about it because he’s a sports guy and he likes all that kind of stuff. It was funny. The guys on my team -- I never thought would get that into, but they were coming up telling me they're moms were voting. They're just so proud to have one their teammates in the competition. But Dad was really... when I went up against Danica because racing is pretty much all he really understands. He’s followed her and watched how well she’s done so he was really exited about what happened that round.
DH: Your Dad actually matched you up with your current boyfriend. How does the boyfriend feel about you winning this thing?
AF: He’s been picking on me lately. "Oh, I can see her head’s getting bigger already." All the jokes are flying, but he’s really proud. His grandma out in Missouri has been online every day voting, reading everything that everyone has been writing. What’s great is friends of mine from middle school and elementary school saw it on AOL and contacted me. It brought me back in touch with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. But the boyfriend is pretty excited, just giving me hard time making sure my ego doesn't get out of control, you know?
DH: Mattel knew what kind of voting power you have. You're still the only professional athlete with your own Barbie Doll. After this, what about a new Ashley Force Barbie?
AF: That would be great. We have two dolls as of now, the Mattel fire suit doll and the Castrol fire suit doll. The kids love it. It’s different. They have bobblehead dolls but no Barbie dolls and what girl doesn't like a Barbie doll, right? I'm 24 years old but when I was a little girl I loved playing with dolls and funnest part about it was the add-ons -- the shoes and the heels and everything, With my doll you have the helmet, the gloves and boots. I think that’s fun for the kids. But half the time the kids will come up with [the doll] and my hair’s cut, painted a different color and they've done makeup on the doll. It’s pretty hilarious.
DH: I can't help but wonder: What would Shirley Muldowney say about all this?
AF: I could ask her this weekend. They're doing a breakfast with her. Women drivers are invited. I'm going to it. Maybe I'll bring it up and see what she thinks. I've asked her questions about racing before. She went through all that when she was competing -- the photographs and them wanting her to play up the woman part of it. She definitely didn't care too much about that. She just wanted to drag race.
But I got to admit, I'm a girlie-girl. I like wearing dresses every once in a while. I actually like wearing them more now that I'm a race-car driver than I did before. When I was younger, you couldn't get me in dress. I was a tom boy. Now that I'm always in a fire suit, every single weekend, on my days off I actually enjoy wearing heels!
Dave Hollander is the author of 52 WEEKS: Interviews with Champions! Info
at: www.davehollander.com
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